


Shards of the Mirror

by EuphoniousGlow



Category: Tale of Tales - The Path (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2010-07-21
Updated: 2010-07-21
Packaged: 2017-10-10 17:11:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/102114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EuphoniousGlow/pseuds/EuphoniousGlow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pieces of the puzzle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shards of the Mirror

The forest was there in the beginning. It existed long before the city was built, before the strangers came from across the sea and over the mountains. Developing civilization shrunk its outer edges until it remained a shadow of its former self, yet if one became lost in the trees it seemed infinite. Very few ever dared to wander too far into the shade of the trees. Becoming lost in its depths would be perilous, for who knew which dangers lurked within? Lost and alone, the mind played tricks and startled at shadows, casting the doubts and fears within at one's surroundings. The forest itself was neither good nor ill. Neither the shadows nor the trees nor the vines under foot could prove darker than the heart of humanity. 

In the forest lived a Girl. Perhaps she was there since the first saplings grew from the earth, perhaps she wondered and was lost to the outside world, becoming a guide so no other visitors met the same fate. And maybe she only appeared after the house at the end of the Path was built. The only certainty was that she was there before the Others. They knew her and did not fear her, neither she them, for their purposes did not lie with each other. She danced on the stage of the theater as it crumbled around her, hit the dischordant notes of the piano and received a glare in return from the Musician. She chased the birds and blessed the trees with her kiss. She danced in graceful pirouettes across fields of flowers, became like a ghost in the mist. Played tag with the Wild One who mimicked her image.

The Girl knew they would come, the people of flesh and dreams and sorrow who ventured off the Path into the forest. As a guide she took their hands and called them away from danger. But she would also show them the way to understanding, though they did not know the cost. Only she would never lose her way among the trees. She watched the inevitable events unfold, the progression of steps closer and closer to the House. She knew all the secrets, saw the fate of every person who entered that dark forest. 

The sisters were destined to walk beneath the twilit branches just as surely as the House was destined to be built, or she to exist. And she began to care for them. The youngest saw her first, the minds of children being attuned beyond the mundane. The oldest, reluctant to step into the disorder of the forest, was indignant that a child would wander in the darkness of nature alone. The Girl enjoyed the company of her playmates yet was also separate from them, and she could see beyond each of them to the natures they carried within, the fears and desires they kept closest to their hearts.

Though her purpose could not be clear even to herself, she wanted them to make the right choice. Yet surely it did not matter, since all roads led to the same end. She played her part and encouraged them where they needed to go, but ultimately they made their own decisions. 

And in the end, she would do what she had to do. She was not a savior. Her part was only a small one in the great tale of the forest, a watcher and protector, for all of time, or at least as long as her role had meaning. The Others, too, merely players. They had no agency of their own. They only had form as far as they were given one. There could be no nightmares without a mind to haunt, no stories without people to shape them.

The first of the sisters stepped foot on the Path, though how her journey would end no one but herself could decide.


End file.
